A new chapter will be written into the history of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship today, when cars take to the challenging Coates Hire Newcastle 500 circuit for the very first time.

The street circuit today becomes the 32nd venue in history to host a round of the Australian Touring Car Championship/Virgin Australia Supercars Championship when Supercars begin practice on the streets of NSW second-largest city.

19-year old Newcastle local, Charlotte Poynting, will have the honour of being the first driver to complete a lap on the specially designed track, after winning a competition to lead the Aussie Racing Cars support category around the streets of her home town in the first ever on-track session.

Later today, Supercars will take to the track for the very first time, in a critical practice session ahead of a busy weekend of racing.

Video News Releases will be issued today and will include:Highlights from the opening day of inaugural Coates Hire Newcastle 500 Interviews with drivers following historic first sessions Colour vision of fans enjoying opening day of event Highlights from today's practice sessions There will be two Supercars practice sessions today in front of what is expected to be a huge crowd. Tomorrow there will be a qualifying session and the inaugural 250km race on the streets of Newcastle.

On Sunday, there will be a qualifying session, a Top 10 Shootout and a potentially championship deciding 250km race to close out the 2017 Supercars season.

Following today's on-track sessions fans will enjoy a performance by The Veronicas and Delta Goodrem, while tomorrow night, Aussie Rock legends, Cold Chisel, will perform in front of a packed house of Supercars fans alongside Spiderbait and The Owls.

Every practice, qualifying and race, as well as support categories, from the Coates Hire Newcastle 500 will be broadcast live, ad-break free on Fox Sports 506 across the weekend.

The event will also be broadcast on TEN and TEN HD from 12pm - 6pm AEDT on both Saturday and Sunday. For the full TV Schedule, head to supercars.com/tv-schedule.